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Top Story THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - March 12, 2001 SAN FRANCISCO -- Web entrepreneur Brewster Kahle has seen the future of the library -- and it's the basement of his offices here on the old Presidio army base near the Golden Gate Bridge. In a cavelike room filled with stacks and stacks of black computer servers resides Alexa Internet, the Internet searching and tracking firm Mr. Kahle founded. The powerful machines hum quietly, their lights blinking yellow and orange. "It's really kind of ungrand," he apologizes, motioning toward the computers. But "this is what a library is going to look like." It is -- in some ways. Alexa Internet's computers are constantly trolling the Internet to capture a picture of most Web pages on it, providing a massive archive of data, text and images that no traditional library -- not even the U.S. Library of Congress -- can match. The information is used by Alexa Internet, which is now owned by Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc., to track who visits certain Web sites and to collect other information. The data gathered by Alexa, where Mr. Kahle remains president, also is being used by another of his projects, the nonprofit Internet Archive. That company is archiving data found on the Web for posterity. Meanwhile, other companies are popping up, either to offer electronic material to libraries or bypass them altogether by offering a host of information and books online -- for a fee -- directly to consumers. And all of this raises the questions: Why do you even need a bricks-and-mortar library in the Internet Age? And is the library destined to become a relic of an earlier era? Not likely. For one thing, most libraries are important social centers and community gathering places in addition to depositories of books. They also serve a time-honored democratic function, providing literature and information to everyone, whether those citizens have the money to buy their own tomes on Amazon.com or not But it's undeniable that technology -- specifically the Web and the proliferation of e-books, complex search engines and online indices for periodicals -- have forced libraries to do some serious soul-searching. Most are scrambling to digitize material and offer better online card catalogs over the Web, so users can find things they need from their computers before ever setting foot in their local branch. Some are even constructing vast new buildings to accommodate old-fashioned books and new technology. Libraries also are spending millions of dollars on new digital-book licenses and facing tough intellectual-property issues. Many are struggling to strike a balance between protecting the copyrights of authors and publishers and giving the public access to the material it wants on the Web. But in their rush to get tech-savvy, some libraries may risk losing sight of their basic mission. For instance, the San Francisco Public Library got pelted with criticism when it opened a soaring, modern new building four years ago, complete with a computerized card catalog and other digital services, but didn't include enough space to expand its book collection or offer easy access to many periodicals. A consultants' report issued last year said the facility suffered from "serious operational problems," and its staff "experiences major problems providing public services." Library spokeswoman Marcia Schneider says some of the issues have been fixed and others will be addressed when funding is sorted out. In the meantime, "the building is seeing over 5,000 visitors a day, and people are finding the materials they want," she says, compared with less than 3,000 visitors in the previous building. Still, such stories illustrate the dilemma many big libraries face. Balancing dusty old volumes with Web access and digitized collections, the institutions "are trying to keep the old world running at the same time they get ready for the new world," says Michael Lesk, a division director at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., who oversees funding for part of the government's Digital Libraries Initiative. Most people assume that researchers and scholars will soon glean most of their information online. But "are they going to get it from someplace that's descended from a library, from a bookstore, or from a totally new start-up we've never heard of?" asks Mr. Lesk. "Everybody is in there...we simply don't know what's going to work." Limited Access? "We provide a balance between copyright protection for publishers...and fair use for students and patrons," says netLibrary's Sandy Mickelson, adding that the service now offers more than 30,000 titles. Publishers including Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Co. and McGraw-Hill Cos., New York, have invested in the venture. But netLibrary's balance is a tough one. Some librarians criticize the company for offering such limited access to its material, particularly when the Internet is supposed to make it easier to get information. Stanford University Librarian Michael Keller says the limited-viewing model "flies in the face" of the democratic ethos of the Internet. Nancy Kranich, an associate dean at New York University and the current president of the American Library Association, adds that netLibrary and other online services "don't contribute their hot titles. They'll contribute their back titles." Ms. Mickelson says that while netLibrary "did start proving the concept" of its service to publishers by offering older books, "I think if you did a comparison amongst providers, you'd find our content is much more recent" now. Still, netLibrary is in some respects struggling to find its way: The company recently laid off 15 people, according to a company spokeswoman, though she said it was because the company had found ways to streamline its operations. This comes after netLibrary completely overhauled its business model a year ago after determining it couldn't effectively sell an online-book service directly to consumers. "We didn't feel consumer adoption of e-books was there yet," says Marge Gammon, the company's senior director of marketing. 'Open Database' "What we're creating is essentially an open database," says Christopher Warnock, ebrary's 33-year-old chief executive. Mr. Warnock knows something about online content: His father, John Warnock, founded Adobe Systems Inc., the maker of online publishing software, and the younger Mr. Warnock worked there for a time. Last fall, some big-name publishers -- including Random House Inc., a unit of Germany's Bertlesmann AG, Pearson PLC of the U.K. and McGraw-Hill -- gave ebrary their imprimatur by making a joint investment of an undisclosed amount. The publishers like the fact that authors' material can't be distributed off the ebrary Web site indiscriminately, and they can even set limits on the ebrary site to restrict people from viewing more than 30% to 40% of a book in one sitting. Most important, perhaps, ebrary's business model "allows the publisher and author communities to get the lion's share of revenue from this activity," says Richard Sarnoff, president of Random House's new media and corporate development group in New York. When people make a transaction on ebrary, the company can get as little as 40% of that revenue, leaving the remainder to be split between the publisher and the author of the work being copied. Another new e-library company is Questia Media Inc. of Houston, which targets college students frantically trying to research and write papers at the last minute. Instead of paying for copying, as ebrary users do, students pay a flat $19.95 monthly fee to Questia for unlimited access to its database of mostly scholarly books. Right now, though, the service boasts only about 44,000 titles, making it likely that students doing research still will have to go to the library. Questia President and Chief Executive Troy Williams says his company isn't competing with libraries, and notes that it also offers snazzy services like automatic footnoting and a complex search engine that can comb Questia's entire database. But he acknowledges that some publishers are a bit queasy about Questia's potential. Some don't like the idea of Questia offering blanket licenses to libraries, say, allowing a library to subsidize 1,000 Questia subscriptions for students because the libraries might then forgo buying a paper version of a book Questia already has. So far, Questia hasn't struck any such deals. Balancing Act The new online companies offer only "a smaller version of the larger chaos" of the library, adds Stanford's Mr. Keller. "They won't have everything. And they won't have the printed stuff." That's becoming apparent to more and more students as they try to use the Web for research, particularly on historical subjects. Betty Lum, a 25-year veteran staff member of Stanford's recently refurbished library, says she recently directed one student working on a research paper about World War II to the old-fashioned Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, instead of the Web. The articles the student wanted from 1940s issues of news magazines like Time and Newsweek simply weren't available online, says Ms. Lum. "One has to remind the students you can't get everything on a computer," she says knowingly from her perch at the main information desk inside the university's main Green Library. But libraries like Stanford's and big public institutions in cities like San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver -- all of which have recently built or are building big new libraries -- realize they must offer high-tech services in addition to paper volumes and older archives. Two years ago, Stanford reopened its main library after 10 years of renovations, most of which were prompted by the damage caused by California's big 1989 earthquake. Now, the facility is chock-full of computers with full Web access and links to online indices and search engines. Even the cushy leather chairs in the building's main reading room have electrical power and Internet hookups. (They're hidden inside the coffee tables next to each chair.) The technology is so pervasive that graduate student Deanne Camara, 25 years old, says she can use the library's facilities and not even own her own computer. One recent evening, she was plopped down in a chair in front of a terminal near the library's main entrance, searching the Internet for lesson plans for an economics class she's student-teaching at a nearby high school. "You can do really specific stuff" with the online databases, says Ms. Camara, who is getting a master's degree in education. Similarly, residents of Seattle recently approved a $196 million bond measure, much of which will be used to build a modern downtown library. There, current and former executives of Microsoft Corp. and other local tech companies are advising the architect on how to wire the building and take advantage of other online services such as e-books. At one recent meeting, the informal advisory group and others affiliated with the library debated the merits of installing a wireless local-area network and discussed their planned construction of an innovative ramped structure to house the library's nonfiction collection. That structure should fit the collection in one continuous space, officials say, instead of split up on different floors. It also will save room for more books to be added over the next 20 to 30 years, something that wasn't done in San Francisco. Still, with all the focus on technology, the library must be careful "not to build a house of tomorrow that becomes corny as soon as you open it," says Deborah Jacobs, the city's head librarian. Long Way to Go Referring to the San Francisco library, which he says at one time was getting about 7,000 visitors a day, he says: "Can you imagine a Web site that gets 7,000 visits a day that cost $135 million? When Amazon.com has 4.5 million volumes of the books you want, the library is not going to measure up." But even e-book proponents argue for continuing investment in libraries. "A library is more than a stack of books," says Dick Brass, the Microsoft vice president in charge of the company's e-books efforts. "The library is a focus of the community. It's a monument to knowledge and learning, just like a university. Books will never lose their appeal." Hitting The Books netLibrary Inc. Where: Boulder, Colo. What It Does: Sells digital versions of books to libraries, much the same way publishers sell paper books to libraries. Advantages: Publishers like that their material is tightly controlled; if a library orders only one copy of an e-book from netLibrary, only one patron can access it at a time. Disadvantages: Company shoulders cost of digitizing books itself. Also, some libraries complain they don't get the most recent titles. Questia Media Inc. Where: Houston What It Does: Targets college students directly with a $19.95-per-month service for access to around 35,000 books from about 190 publishers. Envisions students writing term papers from their dorm rooms, using the Questia Web site, without necessarily having to visit a bricks-and-mortar library. Advantages: Students can print parts of books, or cut and paste segments on their computer screens, without being charged every time. Questia also offers automatic footnoting and other bells and whistles. Disadvantages: Students will have to trek to the library for material not available on Questia -- even though the company bills itself as a comprehensive online library. ebrary Inc. Where: San Francisco What It Does Offers service to libraries and consumers that lets people browse through a large collection of books and other media online, but pay a copy-machine type fee every time they print a page or cut and paste a paragraph or two. Advantages: Publishers like the fact that they and their authors get a large chunk of the revenue each time users print or paste. Disadvantages: Can't print out or sometimes even read entire books; publishers can dictate that users only get access to 30% or 40% of a tome. -- Ms. Buckman is a special writer in The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau. Write to Rebecca Buckman at rebecca.buckman@wsj.com |
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